Friday night well it started all because of Under 8s day and I text my friend to say put the Gin on Ice I need it :) The girls ended up at my place for a drink but it didn't get messy I was in bed by 10.30. Which is a good thing seeing we had soccer at 8.30.

Tim won his game which was great they had been losing lately so a win was great for their confidence and they all played really well. Poor Georgia they all lost again. They are all really nice kids but too nice. They don't get agressive with the ball at all. Oh well maybe one day.

Then I had soccer at 7pm. I had a crap first half I played up front and I think I touched the ball oh um twice! I was just lost. It was supposed to be about fun. I signed up for a womens social team and it was fun in Div 10 but we couldn't get enough players every week so they merged us into the Div 5 team. Aaaaarrrggghhhh. These are mostly young girls and a few women that have been playing for years. I am just lost. I had a better second half as a fullback (sounds good doesn't it). Tackled a girl who hit the ground like a sack of spuds. She was good about it though. Said that's Soccer!!!!!! It ended up being a Nil all draw so better than a loss but not as good as that Win!!!!

Mark went dirt biking on Sunday morning so after doing the dishes and some washing I made myself a coffee and sat on the deck all morning reading. It was lovely. Georgia was at a friends house, Tim was riding his motorbike and Ellie was just playing by herself. Then Mark had soccer at 5pm so I packed him up and sent him on his way so I could get ready for the school week.

March 2006 our world was turned upside down. I write this and then think of what my friend Sheye has been through recently and think well not really upside down. But at the time it was devastating and actually Sheye was one of those beautiful people to ask how I was and give me kinds words to get me through, as were a few others. Some of my friends still to this day don't know what we all went through.

I'd noticed a spot on the top of Georgia's head where her scalp was a different colour and it seemed that her hair was thinning. Then I noticed another one at the front of her hair line. I said to Mark I am going to take her to the dr the next day to see what it is. A little time later as we were getting ready to go out for dinner I put her hair up and at the back on her hair line was a huge amount of hair missing. My heart skipped a beat! We went to dinner and I just watched her the whole night wondering what on earth was wrong.

When we arrived home I put the kids to bed and then googled hair loss and children. What I came up with was devastating. I self diagnosed through googling that she had "AlopeciaAreata". I know I know don't google!!!

"AlopeciaAreata" is an Autoimmune Condition in which the immune system, which is designed to protect the body from foreign invaders such as viruses and bacteria, mistakenly attacks the hair follicles and the hair falls out in patches all over the head and sometimes body. This condition is not life threatening and doesn't even hurt but the emotional and psychological effect can be devastating.

If the patient loses all the hair on his/her scalp, the disease is then called Alopeciaareatatotalis.

If all body hair, including legs, arms, eye brows, eye lashses is lost, the diagnosis then becomes Alopeciaareatauniversalis.

If the patient loses a few spots on their head it is AlopeciaAreata.

Of course as any parent would be I just lost it. I took her to the dr the next day to the first one I could get into. He looked at her and said it looks like AlopeciaAreata and I said "I know". He said "Unfortunately there isn't much you can do about the condition and then fell silent". Fuck is all I can think of. As I write this it hurts me so much and makes me angry that this has happened to her.

Mark got on the phone right away to a wonderful lady here who is the one in charge of our local AlopeciaAreata support group. She was just so wonderful and supportive. Every time I spoke to her she calmed me down. It is a weird condition. Whenever she falls pregnant she gets full regrowth of her hair and then once she has her baby her hair falls out again. I think this must be because your immune systems lays dormant for a while so it doesn't attack the baby as a foreign body thus allowing your hair to grow back. And yes it can grow back. One awful thing about this condition is nobody is the same. It affects people in all different ways. I have heard of children waking up in the morning and having lost their hair overnight.

Ok back on track. I booked in to see a Trichologist who is an expert on skin and nails. Not a professional like a dermatologist more like an Naturopath. Anway she was weird to put it mildly. I think she may have done a few pills before she saw me or a line of cocaineLOL. She gave us some magic powder which G had to take twice a day. Anyway didn't do a darn thing. After everything I read I came to the realisation that if it was going to regrow it would by itself. Nothing that you do makes much of a difference or for very long anyway. But it was getting worse. I couldn't put her hair up anymore because she had lost so much. But after much talk with her we did start putting her hair up. She knew what to say if someone asks about her hair and her wonderful Preschool Teacher was there to help her as well. Thanks Janelle for all of your support through this. I would ring Janelle from work just to see how she was, especially if she had worn her hair up that day and you could see her hair loss.

Late last year I went to see a Dermatologist. One of the top ones in Brisbane, my dr even said he had stopped taking patients. But I think because she was a child with this condition he agreed to see her without even hesitating. He explained it all to me and confirmed that it was AA and gave me some steroid cream to put on her head once a day on all her bald spots. I so don't like steroid creams. G had excema as a baby and I refused to put cortizone on her. But I was desperate. The thought of my baby having no hair was not something I wanted to contemplate.

Forward to today and she has full hair regrowth YAY!!! Everytime her hair gets wet and I see some gaps (which are completely normal) my heart skips a beat. Georgia will always have AA it doesn't go away. She may never ever get a recurrence again (lets hope). It may come back soon, in a year, in 10 years, in 50 years. I've spent to so much time crying over this condition. I would be on the bus on the way home from work and just cry. I think it is that time just sitting and thinking. No it isn't life threatening it won't debilitate her but hey kids can be nasty!

I can't believe how many other autoimmune conditions there are out there. Scientists just can't figure out why out body turns and fights itself, some conditions are - diabetes, arthritis, lupus, MS (they think), Celiac, Chron's, Graves, Chronic Fatigue just to name a few of the better known ones.

I promised Ellie yesterday she could make Chocolate Cake. Well she did and she did most of it herself! She had so much fun. She measured all the ingredients and mixed it all up. I had to melt the butter. But apart from that it was all her cake. She was so excited when the kids came home from school. It was all gobbled up in no time. I can't believe I didn't take a photo of the finished product though. It had hot pink icing (ick) and pink sprinkles LOL

I love cooking and so do all the kids. I think letting them get their hands in early is good. In saying that we don't do painting at our house. Too messy for me (poor kids) But we sure do make a mess in the Kitchen!!

Oh yeah not quite sure what the ribbon is doing around her head. She's a bit of a freak!!!!!

I love photography and I have some friends that are just soooo gifted. They just do it, and I just want to do it. Every now and then I pick up my camera and my photography books and I get the girls out for a session. I just don't get it though. fstops and aperture and stuff I just don't get. Well today I have 3 girls to play with. So I say go get dressed up well they come back out in dress ups. I did ask didn't I :) So I get my books out and start playing with the manual settings. Everything was coming out black. So I sit down and read and play and Yay I found it. Some other time when I was playing I fiddled with something I should have. Can't tell you what I did but I know how to fix it now.

So here are 2 photos from the session! I appreciate a good photo more than a piece of art and I just feel so frustrated! I know I will never be as good as others but just to be a little bit good would be nice.

blogs. It suddenly came to me tonight. Blog watching is like "Choose your our Adventure Books". Remember those where you could either go here or there. I was just clicking through blogs tonight until I found one that interested me. Then it came to me "Choose your our Adventure"!!!!! If I didn't like where I was headed then I just went back a few!

Well he finally did it. After weeks of discussing (with me) which bike.

. Should I get the bike with the small fuel tank because it is a better bike.. Should I get the bike with the big fuel tank beause I can ride further.. Should I buy so and so's bike because it is a good bike.. Should I buy the DZ or the GR.. I don't want to buy so and so's bike because it has too many kilometres.. I don't like the colour of this bike what do you think........

After listening to this day in day out and asking my opinion on bike stats which I don't really care for. After hours spents on the toilet looking through bike magazines (I think this was because it was a quiet place where he could ponder).

He has finally done it. Yesterday he picked up his new bike. LOL I just had to go to the photo to see what make it is. It's a suzuki!!

So now I won't see him for dust as he rides off into the sunrise with his bum chums!!!!!!

Yesterday I was just so busy. I had coffee with some friends, which so was so nice catching up :) Then I had to drive Mark into a Podiatrist appoint. Ellie and I visited Uncle Andrew and had coffee and milkshakes Yum!! Then I raced back to pick the kids up from school and get ready for Ballet.

Finally after Ballet drop off I started to make dinner. I am trying to clean my freezer out and use everything up! So I decided on chicken pie. First I had no onions so I rang my neighbour 1km away to borrow an Onion. Tim jumped on his motorbike to get it for me. So I am trying to make dinner quickly and without fuss as I have soccer training and need to get it in the oven before then.I turn around for just 2 seconds and Ellie is helping me mangle the chicken. She is just being soooo helpful these days Aaaarrrggghhhh! Can you see the concentration on her face.

Welll I got dinner in the oven. Went to soccer training and by the time I got home all the dishes were done and the kids were asleep Bliss!!!!!!!!